


A Wolf Knows Much

by SecondStarfall (beantiger)



Series: The Second Starfall Stories [19]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Boats and Ships, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Style, Fantasy, Fever, Flash Fic, Gen, Happy Ending, Illnesses, Medieval, Microfic, Motherhood, Newborn Children, Originally Posted Elsewhere, Sex Workers (Not Explicit), Trans Female Character, Werewolves, Wolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22372318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beantiger/pseuds/SecondStarfall
Summary: She was the wealthiest of the rose-room courtesans, yet not a single soul in that wretched town could heal her dying infant. Not the ritualists, the apothecary, the midwife, the surgeon.***A mother seeking to cure her child welcomes a surprising visitor.
Series: The Second Starfall Stories [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1582975
Kudos: 10





	A Wolf Knows Much

**Author's Note:**

> This is a version of the original Twitterfic, same title, posted over at my now-deactivated personal account in January 2020. It has been given fairly moderate edits for consistency with other stories and readability on AO3. ❤️ 
> 
> **SUGGESTED RE-READING:** Another one that stands alone! But if you want to know more about [Marlesse,](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Marlesse%20de%20la%20Mer*s*the%20Chief%20Guard) read any of her tales. They're all tagged on AO3.
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨

She was the wealthiest of the rose-room courtesans, yet not a single soul in that wretched town could heal her dying infant. Not the ritualists, the apothecary, the midwife, the surgeon. So she—Claudine de la Mer—retreated to her houseboat, exhausted. The little one had fallen silent with fever, and she held the babe to her chest, staring out from the bow as the morning fog burned. Anger, sadness—those were too much, too much. Her mind had surrendered.

On the shore trudged a cowled woman Claudine often saw picking leeches at dawn. They caught each other's soft, sick gazes, and—

"I lost a cub," said the leech collector, crawling aboard. Her dew-gilded hood had fallen, and her features reminded Claudine of ash and soot—a tired remnant of something once wild. Yet she could not have been much older than Claudine. Perhaps twenty, if that.

"I will not, cannot, see another cub lost," the collector added. She took the swaddled infant into her arms. "Who was her sire? There it always begins."

"Her father? Sir Galien the Redwood. He called on me frequently at the rose-rooms last spring. I wanted a child—a strong child—I chose him for that reason."

"Yes, yes. His features?"

Claudine could not bring a clear image of his face to mind. "Bronze skin. Large. He had—I suppose you might call it a birthmark—or even a burn, of some sort—he has a line of red across his nose."

"Blood red? Ah. So he was a feverish cub himself, then. She'll be fine. To be certain—give her your name—or the name of your mother, or aunt." 

"What about—Marlène? That was—"

"Yes, yes, it doesn't matter, so long as it is a name from your own bloodline. That will temper his influence well enough."

In the collector's arms—they were thin, but lithe, graceful—the babe cooed, just perceptibly. Claudine wondered at the sound for a long time and embraced the two, quivering. 

"Tell me why I trust you," she said.

"I suppose the same reason some trust dogs on sight," the collector said, "and others don't."

"How do you know—"

"Wolves know much."

***

For a week the collector stayed in Claudine's cabin, bringing with her the odd but distinct scent of a wet hound. The pair talked little, but—as if peace itself had brought the cure—the babe grew stronger every morning.

***

Finally the leech collector flipped down her cowl.

"My watch is no longer needed. I don't think my brother is coming," she said, on the sixth day.

"Your brother? Some tax-man?"

"If only," said the leech collector, whose name—though Claudine had only heard it once—was Jeunesse.

"How shall I pay you?"

Jeunesse the leech collector stood at the edge of the boat, ready to dive. In the blooming light of the day she seemed powerful, somehow. But not frighteningly so. She turned to Claudine, who thought: _We could've been friends, in another kingdom and time._

Said Jeunesse, "If the cub falls ill again, and a man who looks like me stands at the harbor with curing promises—deny him. If after you hear the howls of wolves—deny those. And if he gets this far—shove monkshood down his throat, and use that dagger I gave you."

With a splash, Jeunesse was gone, and while Claudine would see her again, she did not know that at present. She returned to the cabin, and wept, and nursed Marlesse—the name chosen as a part of Claudine, and a part of this wondrous visitor. 

The dagger, like a ward, hung silently on the wall for years. Its hilt glimmered with silver like starlight on the water, or like the last fog of dawn.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment or a kudos or whatever the heck if this tickled your fancy. There shall be more! ❤️ Also, please let me know what other characters, relationships, or places you'd like to hear about. I have lots of ideas, but I'd enjoy writing a few stories for y'all as well.
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨
> 
>  **AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY:** I think it was this story where I realized Second Starfall was spiraling out of control _beautifully_ and I was in no position to stop it. Nor did I want to. Each story begets more stories, fractal-like. I'll probably be on my deathbed with things left to say about this world.
> 
> Also, FYI, Jeunesse is a transwoman _and_ a werewolf. I have lots of tales in the pipeline about her, and her daughter Simone, who you'll meet later. She's had a life, that Jeunesse.


End file.
